Petshark: Talking Stick

Entries with the tag: daniel winnik

There’s nothing to report from Shark Territory, but it’s been a long time since I posted anything so here are some thoughts on the latest lack of news.

A little over a week ago, Kevin Kurz asked if the Sharks owners should be allowed to profit from their NHL team. I winced at the word “allowed.” Lyle Richardson asked why the team is not profitable in his article from the 18th. But to ask if the owners should be allowed to make money is absurd. There is no law, rule or viable lobby that argues team owners should not be allowed to profit from their teams. Of course NHL teams are for-profit ventures. That said, there’s a difference between allowing someone to do something and finding ways to help them do it.

It gets sticky in terms of PR (which owners may or may not actually care about) when you cry poverty and you aren’t poor, and then try to make your employees pay for your unsatisfactory profits. Whether the NHL thinks they will benefit from a more closely regulated expense system or not, they had time under the 2005 CBA to figure out what a cap system can and can’t do to save owners from each other.

What was that Sharks press conference about yesterday? I can’t begin to answer that. I don’t blame them that Dreger blabbed the Stuart news before it started, but they weren’t even prepared to confirm that news. So why did they meet with the press at all?

As the non-news trickled in, I thought maybe this was the owners’ attempt to quash those rude stories about them not being around or not knowing what was going on and nobody knowing who they were. That works.

Kevin Compton and Stratton Sclavos explained that they don’t tell Doug Wilson what to do with the team, even if he does run the big ticket items by the owners. I think that’s nice. Busy-body owners only muddle things, and what is a General Manager for if you don’t let him manage? They also mentioned that they are in this to win:

“Mission No. 1 around here is winning the Stanley Cup and that’s what this whole business is about,” Sclavos said. “We’ve been spending to the salary cap every year to put the best team on the ice that we think we can and in aggregate, the performance has been good. -Working the Corners

Aggregate isn’t a word I use much but I like that idea- don’t go jumping off of bridges over one step back if you’ve made progress over several seasons. While explaining that they’re not in it for the money, they mentioned that the organization isn’t in debt. That’s fairly dazzling in this era of debt junkies.

As others have pointed out, Winchester and Handzus may play today instead of Galiardi and Moore. Seems like the Sharks roster is back where it started before moving McGinn…except for not having McGinn anymore. I hope they aren’t taking everything back to the drawing board. I know I wanted them to throw their keys in the river but I didn’t mean parachute into Antarctica to do it and hope to find your way back by puck drop.

Mark Purdy wrote a piece about Thornton returning to the penalty kill, saying that Moore has been a disappointment after being acquired for that. He didn’t mention that it’s hardly ideal to rely on someone who’s wearing a cage anyway. I know a player can play with a cage but I still wouldn’t call him exactly a “healthy scratch” if he has to wear one.